Wrapping with surfactant sheet and forming complex structures from interfacial instabilities

Wrapping a three-dimensional (3D) object with a two-dimensional (2D) sheet is not uncommon, but when the sheet is bestowed with strong interfacial activities, interesting phenomena will occur. Macromolecules, isolated from biomass, form a scalable thin surfactant sheet with an oil/water interface through an interfacial jamming process that marks three distinct stages of interfacial behavior. The surfactant sheet wraps, traps, and stabilizes both oil and water droplets in non-equilibrium morphologies, and promptly reassembles into adapted morphologies upon environmental stimulus. Beyond preserving exotic morphologies, the surfactant sheet can also actively participate in the morphology evolution by driving interfacial instability around the wrapped content, leading to novel morphologies as well as many potential applications.

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